Three Centuries of Catholicism

Ste. Genevieve

Father Pratte continued steady work in Ste. Genevieve, the oldest
town in the state, and built an academy there. Brother Antonin
became the first teacher and the first Christian Brother to teach in
the United States. When Father Pratte died of yellow fever at the
age of 34, he was succeeded by Father Francis Xavier Dahmen, C.M.,
who had been a cavalryman in the French Imperial armies and had
stories to tell of Napoleon’s campaigns. He served the French and
German settlers there for 18 years. St. Genevieve was to remain a
small city but a strong center of Catholicism.